CHAPEL HILL – University of North Carolina Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz laid it out there not ten seconds into his opening statement Tuesday as UNC introduced its 20th ever head men’s basketball coach.
“Hubert Davis directly connects our storied past with our exciting future,” Guskiewicz said sitting at mid-court on the Smith Center court, which bears the name of Davis’ former boss and predecessor.
And with that, this program’s fabled past was adding another link to what is coming.
“He’s achieved at every level, taken every challenge and beaten the odds, and has established himself as a winner every step along the way,” Guskiewicz later added. “And I’m confident that with this new challenge, that he will continue that journey of success.
“I’m proud to have Coach Davis as the face of Carolina basketball for years to come.”
Hubert Davis is now the head coach at North Carolina, succeeding Roy Williams, who led the Tar Heels to three national championships and five Final Fours during his 18-year run. Moving into a seat previously occupied by men whom Davis holds deep reverence is part of a lifelong mission he has traveled.
Davis is a Tar Heel, he says, and there is no other place he wants to work or call home.
“I’d always wanted to be here at Carolina,” Davis said, during a 55-minute press conference in which he choked up six times. “Growing up, I’d always wanted to walk out of that tunnel, always wanted to put on that uniform, always wanted to play for Coach (Dean) Smith, always wanted to play on this floor, always wanted to get an education here.
“I wanted to be a part of this community, I wanted to be a part of this history. Being a part of this program was a big deal to me. My uncle was an All-American here from ’74 through ’77, and even though I grew up right outside of Washington, D.C., the first time that I set foot on this campus, it just felt like home.”
Davis’ path to this moment 50 years into his impressive life is marked by his many associations in the sport. He played for Dean Smith at UNC from 1988-92, also spent 12 years in the NBA, seven years as an analyst at ESPN, and the last nine seasons as an assistant under Williams.
A native of Burke, VA, Davis grew up connected to the UNC program because his uncle, Walter Davis, was one of the Tar Heels’ top players in the 1970s. He played for Smith from 1974-77, was a first-team All-ACC, a member of the 1976 gold medal Olympic team, the No. 5 overall pick in the 1977 NBA draft, a six-time NBA All-Star, and his jersey number six is retired by the Phoenix Suns.
Hubert starred at Lake Braddock Secondary School just outside of Washington, D.C., in Burke, VA, before going to UNC as an unheralded recruit. But he proved many naysayers wrong by finishing his UNC career with 1,615 points and was second-team All-ACC as a senior after averaging 21.4 points per contest.
Davis was selected No. 20 overall by the New York Knicks and played 12 seasons in the NBA scoring 5,535 points and is currently the No. 2 all-time NBA leader in three-point percentage. In the NBA, Davis played for Pat Riley, Larry Brown, and Don Nelson in the league, so he has been around many of the sport’s greatest coaches and minds of all time.
Williams came calling in 2012, though. He had a spot open on his staff and wanted Davis to leave TV and join the program. Davis thought it was about the Christian basketball camp he held every year at the Smith Center, but instead Williams asked him to join his staff.
“I don’t remember anything else he said,” Davis recalled. “All I know is I left (his) office, I went home, I sat at the kitchen table, and my wife said, ‘What is wrong with you?’ And I told her and we cried there for a couple of hours.
“We cried not because we were leaving ESPN or crying because we didn’t know what we were getting into, those were tears of joy and happiness and knowing this is exactly the direction that we needed to go (and) exactly what we needed to do.”
With Williams retiring last Thursday, Davis was an immediate target by UNC Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham, but he still did due diligence in looking for the right fit for the job.
In addition to Guskiewicz and Cunningham, eight members of Cunningham’s staff conducted interviews as well as many former UNC players helped him identify potential candidates. Cunningham said they had a number of internal and external candidates.
“It allowed us to have a broad view of who would be the right person to lead us right now,” he said. “And again, we came back to Coach Hubert Davis.”
And now, Davis is in the same seat as Smith, Guthridge, and Williams.
